Belle and Sebastian - The BBC Sessions

Belle and Sebastian are my favourite band. They have sound tracked the last few years, with each album that I have acquired being more worrisome than the previous, as I come dangerously close to exhausting my ability to find new material of theirs to covet and cherish. It was earlier this year that I finally took the plunge and picked up the maligned Storytelling and the gorgeous Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant – both these albums split opinion of the band down the middle like a lightning strike.

So, hearing that they have a new album on the way, albeit seemingly a soundtrack to a film, I knew I was in safe hands – then they announced the grandest prize off all for a fan, a collection of rare recordings of the band during their heyday.

And this collection is no mean collection. Unlike the recent Smiths best-of that should be revered for being able to make a great singles band such as the Smiths and turning them into a soulless cash in best-of collection. This album is a 2 CD set of BBC recordings from sessions taken during the era of the band that is their ethereal peak, 1996 to 2001. Here there are versions of their grandest songs, such as Dylan in the Movies and a rather early version of Lazy Line Painter Jane.

The version of I Could Be Dreaming is pure poptastic genius – a perfect version of one of the bands greatest songs. Also, The Stars of Track and Field is one of the darkest songs the band have written, and is deeper, echoing here like never before, a shine of dark spreading over the production.

The first CD is a good addition to the back catalogue, even if it is essentially a tapered selection, obviously limited by what the band recorded. The second CD is a live concert from Belfast, which has a few rather interesting songs, such as fan-sang covers of I’m Waiting for the Man and The Boys Are Back In Town, proving that the band have a little more to their live performances rather than just playing the album tracks live.

The problem is that we already have extensive collections of live version of songs from the band – Push Barman to Open Old Wounds is the greatest collection of B-Sides and non-album tracks ever assembled and the live version of If You’re Feeling Sinister is a pinnacle for the band. BBC Sessions is essential, and you really should get it, but there is so much more to this band, so much more to discover. The only thing that I can think of that is more exciting than listening to this album and this band over and over again is the feeling that you have not even discovered them yet – truly one of the greatest Scottish bands of all time.

8/9

Review - Keane - Perfect Symmetry

Keane. The dirtiest word in modern day indie-rock. Probably. They came out of the blue in 2005 to blow all the little middle of the road Radio 2 listeners away with their piano led haunted chiming and the soaring epic vocal of, finally, a indie singer that can truly sing. It was a revelation. They never quite got the indie crowd behind them, bypassing that and going straight to Snow Patrol stardom. They do the Coldplay thing much better than Coldplay do it.

So their debut album sold millions and I was one of the mugs who bought it – indeed, curiosity mostly, but also because I was in Barcelona and it was cheap. If I can remember where I bought it surely it made some impression. It was a solid record – pant wettingly epic at points, but some of the tracks are pretty much great – Untitled and Sunshine are two of the greatest songs the band have written, hands down. The follow-up was again picked on by my self, this time on holiday in Malta, where it’s swaying epic choruses’ soundtrack going to get a paper in the morning and bottles of water. It was a good album.

But earlier this year we heard rumblings of trouble in camp Keane. A solo record? Cocaine addiction? Trumpets? It was all pointing to a Be Here Now disaster… and incredibly they managed to avoid it.

How? Well, Perfect Symmetry is an album of interesting direction changes but no distance gained. For example, Spiralling, the lead single, is a rather outlandish use of synth, spoken vocals and slap retro-bass, but keeps the structure of a Keane track. Second single, The Lovers Are Losing, is plain sailing for Keane. The use of Guitarish sounding synth or synth sounding guitar on You Haven't Told Me Anything the is a good idea, as hemming into just using instruments set out in the beginning is a sure fire way of failing the next-album test, but again it’s strides into the right point on the experimentation compass but stays rooted firmly on the spot.

The glances in new directions are good. Indeed, another album of samey bland ballads would kill the chances of the band outstaying their welcome, but it won’t appease the hoards of indie shirkers who see Keane as exactly what is wrong with music. The album is good, probably very good, but has a few troubles.

Firstly, the ballads that are present are crap. The title track is simply appalling – Keane doing a bad cover of Keane. The choral flourishes towards the end compound the lack of ideas on this track and to bestow it with the album title gives it clout it should never have, as well as lasting well beyond its allotted time frame.

The album is darker in places but mostly brighter than the “troubled” Under the Iron Sea, and the new look Keane and new sounding Keane are much much much more interesting than their earlier incarnations, but are still the same old band, with the same old problems. The only advantage that they now have is that it will be hard to predict where to go now – and that might be enough to keep everyone interested.

6/9

One Line Reviews - Deerhunter, TV On the Radio, Oasis, Verve

Just a quick one, as I have been trying to write full write-ups of these albums for a few weeks... and kinda have had to give up. So, here, are short little lines about my feelings for the albums.

Oasis – Dig Out Your Soul
- Okay, so they are past it, and are all grown-up, but this album is a good return to form, with some very good tracks on it, with most wearing their inspiration proudly on display. 5/9

Verve – Forth
- A comeback that is completely wasted, as there is nothing more than a below par Richard Ashcroft solo track on here, with almost nothing carried through from the Verve name; a wasted opportunity. 4/9

Deerhunter – Microcastle
- What to make of this record I don’t know, but it is very good, with some excellent ideas and well executed songs… but it lacks something to make it truly great. 7/9

TV on the Radio – Dear Science
- I have tried to write a full review on this album for the last few weeks, but nothing has worked out – and I can understand why, and it is because I don’t think I “get” it… I like all the different styles, the lyrics, and the music, and I know the impressive praise that the album has got, but I can’t figure it out yet. 6/9

Review - The Dears - Missiles

I’ve had a tumultuous relationship with The Dears over the last few years, much like they have had with themselves. From their awe inspiring indie master piece that is No Cities Left, seeing them live, and then the received coolly by critics Gang of Losers that was played to death by myself and the disappointment that it was not as good as No Cities Left, before realising that it didn’t need to be, I have travelled in peaks and troughs with this band. Seeing them live for the second time in October 2006, which truly feels like an age ago, was a good point to confirm that I really liked this band but they had their flaws.

So, I had my reservations about their fourth album – my third album with the band. Hearing from various sources, then direct from the band, that things were not going too well back stage was confirmed by the departure of four members, leaving two, was disheartening. When coming into contact with the album early last week I have been slowly gathering my thoughts, having played the album many times in my car, in my work and in the quieter moments, I have decided that this is a fantastic record.

It is dark. There are moments of true despair in these10 tracks, mostly wrapped in a dirty production that harks back to their No Cities Left era. The musicianship is of the highest quality, and the little flourishes of guitar and piano that are sprinkled over the record radically affect the tone and style of the band.

Opener Disclaimer is a good pace setter. It starts dark and slow, adding vocals, with Lightburn crooning in his most desolate style. The album readily calls dark winter nights – these are the nights that I associate with the Dears.

On Lights Off the band let things go, unleashing towards the other end of the quiet-riot spectrum, instead unleashing a rasping guitar solo that is not out of place on a true rock record. The length of the song amplifies the journey to get there, and the moment it hits doesn't jar with the slow, more soft approaches on the album.

The rather insipid Meltdown in a Major was the album's preview and it did little to convince me - and in the album setting, I still feel ambivalent towards it. It doesn't resonate with the rest of the record, though it's story, tellingly, is the most terrifying of the album. The simple piano stabs, filled with dread, add to the dark flavour of the album.

The stand out tracks, however, come with quieter moments and more experiment moments. The second track, after epic Disclaimer as previously mentioned, is subdued and calculated - Dream Job is the kind of song missing from Gang of Losers but was in abundance on No Cities Left. "Here comes another Heartbeat/beating like a drum" softly intones Lightburn, gravitating towards a place not ventured into since Lost in the Plot. It is a great rallying call. The other stand out track sees a vocal performance from the other half of The Dears that survived the recording session, Natalia Yanchak, on Crisis 1 & 2, she evokes a warmer vocal line but is joined in a fantastic twist at the end by Lightburn - much in the same way that exchange works in 22: Death of All the Romance on No Cities Left.

However, for me, the greatest song on the record is Demons; starting with a synth loop the guitar and drums kick in pushing the beat to a faster pace than thought before. The vocal melodies, coupled with the bass line that propels the song forward, hidden in front of the rather out of key strings, act out a dramatic scene in a grand mix between the great rock record of Gang of Losers and the epic of No Cities Left.

In comes to the end, and with out wondering why or how, you have realised that the album is a more complete set of songs than both previous records. You feel the heartache and break that it takes to create an album of this type, and the style changes from the earlier to this work add up to a logical conclusion that makes more sense as a continuation of a previous chapter than a brand new instalment. This is the album The Dears needed to make, and it is very exact in it's execution. It is not the best album of the year, that is so far going to either The Walkmen or Elbow, but it a strong candidate, and reaffirms why I fell in love with Lightburn's vocals and the band's songs in the first place. A very solid record.

7/9

Review - Iglu & Hartly - & Then Boom

I wish I could make up some long winded review, but that would really be a waste of my time, a waste of your time, and most importantly, give these utter wankers more of their coroprate 1990s shit-white-rap-shit that is permeating the airwaves in a manner that can only be likened to severe famine in Africa, a nuclear explosion in the second world war, or, quite simply in one word. That word is:

FAIL.

0/9

Travis - Ode to J. Smith

There is something about Travis that makes me really sad – it is something to do with the fact that they have perennially be labelled as “rubbish” since their third album The Invisible Band. Whilst it might be true that it was not exactly the greatest record ever, it stands as a good example of the time, which was easy listening and catchy pop hooks. It wasn’t always like that though, as for a while they were, like Starsailor and Coldplay, the indie darlings, after the simply overplayed brilliance of their second album, The Man Who. Recently, with 12 Memories, they went grown-up and the masses turned away with glee. 4 years later they followed it up with The Boy With No Name, which was much better aimed at the same audience that gave them their ascendancy and it worked a bit.

But this, the bands sixth album, comes just more than a year later, and with the added interest of many older fans – this is, as it said, is more like their debut album, the blindingly good Good Feeling, a truly excellent debut album.

This album is good. It is much better than I’d expect and is louder, but there are a few problems with it. Firstly, it seems to by trying to be different. Take the title track (well, almost) J. Smith, with the angular riffing and the bass inflected drum beat, it sounds on paper like it should be impressive, but towards the end it goes all Arcade Fire with choral voices and epic crescendo building layers. This is not to say it is a bad song – indeed, it works, but is this Travis?

Again, we are surprised to find on the single Something Anything even more angular guitar and a solo not out of place on a Pink Floyd out takes album. The next track is direcrlty lifted from the first album to the point of parody – it feels so 1990s that waves of nostalgia over come me every time I hear it’s opening bars.

There are a few parts of the album that will make the fans of the middle period of Travis, namely the Invisible Band, will be affronted with. They won’t like it and I think that it is intended to be like that. The album jars from first listen to last and there is a reason for this: Travis are no longer this band. They were, but they are not and have not been in years. So why are they performing these songs, writing these songs now? I don’t know.

What I do know is that it is very good and worth a listen. Whether or not it works as a Travis album, I don’t know for sure, but it proves that they still can sing All I Want to is Rock with fervour and honesty.

6/9

Review - Mogwai - The Hawk Is Howling

It is a well held belief that silence can be more powerful than words. This is not unsurprising when we are shouted each day by hundreds of television and print adverts to buy different types of nonsense that we don’t really need. I am a culprit of such a thing – I recently got an iPhone and, even after saying that it didn’t bother me much, it is very good, and now the things it does are quite important to me, like the GPS system. But there is nothing better than sitting down with an album, and listening to the music.

Where Mogwai fit into this is that they are a rock band with lyrics – or at least, use them minimally. On their seminal album Come On Die Young they did add lyrics to the mix, albeit soft spoken and sampled, but they were there to punctuate the material. Otherwise, they leave the music to do the talking.

This is not exactly unusual – indeed, it is quite a cyclical outlook on music, as most of the most emotive pieces of music are instrumental, be it a classical score, operatic or even a film score, it puts music to emotion with having to spell it out for everyone in words. Mogwai are the Scottish equivalent of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. They are the often cited Post-rock stalwarts, having perfected the 6 minute long passage of music built around noise, tinkering with arrangements, and repetition.

Their last album proper was Mr Beast, a hit and miss selection of Mogwai cuts, kind of like a good pack of ham. Plenty of good taste and texture, but it just wasn’t the same meat as you used to get. They released an interim album, a soundtrack to the wildly interesting and on the face of it, boring, Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, simply following a football player over 90 minutes. This album was more delicate and measured, with a theme of simple guitar lines and an over arcing riff. It gave me hope that the mix of tracks on Mr Beast, a piano led track, an acoustic track, and loud track were just a blip and the layered multi faceted experience of Come on Die Young would return.

Interestingly there seems to be a mix of them on this album. Starting with Jim Morrison I am Dead, the album lulls you into a quiet ascendancy, slowly lifting your chin up to gaze at you, with a smile on your face. After this slow, but measured, introduction to the album, instead of gently stroking your chin, it Glasgow Kisses you and runs off into the night laughing with the uproariously loud and heavy Batcat. It sounds forced, almost manufactured, and even though it harks back to the sounds of Mogwai Fear Satan, it is never going to capture the ferocity of that track, simply because that was then, and this is now.

This is the era of production and electronic blips and bleeps. On The Sun Smells Too Loud they are there in force, and work well. It is to the end of the album where things get interesting, with I Love You, I am Going to Blow Up Your School being intricate, and The Precipice, ending the album with a swage of perfect post rock.

It is a mixed bag, but six albums in and the band can’t be expected to keep innovating in the same way that they did previously in their career. It feels like a good summation of the bands career and is a great addition to the discography, but with Mogwai each album feels like a little story. And when you listen back to The Hawk Is Howling it feels much more disjointed – almost like a Mogwai best of would sound. For other bands, this might be a strength, but for Mogwai this is a disadvantage.

The problem with success and creative experience is that you can ruin you back catalogue or improve it. Mogwai have done neither – The Hawk Is Howling is not essential, but definitely worth a look. Their greatest work will always lie behind them.

6/9

Review - The Walkmen - You & Me

A long time ago I saw The Walkmen live. In fact, it was so long ago I remember little to nothing of them. Actually, that isn’t so much true, as I saw two other bands that rainy night in Edinburgh; Idlewild were the main act, and blew me away. It was truly the epiphany that live music can be. The Walkmen preceded Idlewild and were dark, brooding, and loud. I remember a couple of their songs from the night but nothing sticks out more than the other bang, the Star Spangles, a terrible punk throwback band, who almost ruined the night for me after their interminable set.

Fast forward almost a hundred years and I have started listening to The Walkmen for the first time properly. And this album, their fifth album of dark melancholic New York rock that sounds every bit part Interpol and Strokes, is absolutely fantastic.

You & Me sounds very much a winter album. The crooning of Hamilton to the dark regress of piano and bass propelled by a thudding battery of drumming, washes over the senses and paints a bleak sparse landscape of New York. I would at this point mention 9/11, but we can probably sidestep past that whole “post-9/11” drivel by pointing out similar artists from a simpler time, such as Joy Division or The Velvet Underground. The reason why The Walkmen remind me of that is the melody hidden under a sheen of dark intonement and expression, so subtle that it takes several listens for the whole album to unravel.

I find this band in mate early 20s and they mean so much and make so much sense to me that I feel that if I had been involved with them any early I might not only became the muso that I am threatening to become, but like Pulp, I wouldn’t have understood the point of The Walkmen. They sit atop a pile of bands that are intellectual without sound pretentious, expand their musical sound without having to resort to high wage producers, and have crafted a level of album consistency only equalled in measurable success by Elbow, and this album, with tracks as dark as the opener “Donde Esta La Playa” and the rolling “Postcards from Tiny Islands”, serve as the perfect introduction to a band who seem to channel the grandeur of an age of music that is long forgotten.

This age of music that made sense, had meaning, was as successful as R&B today, is long gone but never more relevant, and The Walkmen are the best there is, and You & Me is one of the best albums this year.

8/9

Review - Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Melodies and harmonies are the order of the day with the eponymous debut from Fleet Foxes, and the rather incredible and sweet vocals that drift lightly through this most summery of summer albums, you are dragged into a world of dandelions and rolling hills via the rather driving guitar work and vocal harmonies.

To say who they sound like it is hard - there is twinges of Dylan, slights of Beach Boys, but mostly I hear a band that are not well known to the record buying public - Cosmic Rough Riders, a band obscure and whilst they have been a long time away, it has be assured that they are not over yet.

But to fill that void, Fleet Foxes do a sterling job. On the opener the harmonies start sounding a little too country, but it pulls away and becomes hymn like with many voices singing softly in melodic gold. The sound is organic, whilst it treads water musically, each track has a top tapping pace that carries it on and into a good territory where the band seem to settling on a certain rhythm. It starts to sound very good, and on Ragged Wood the vocals, strained on the longer notes, have an organic quality, much like Twilight Sad's style.

It is a real summer album, but it lacks legs, burning out after 8 or so tracks. Like all good Indie albums the band have tried to define them selves, and Fleet Foxes have done so especially well. A true treat of 2008 so far.

7/9

Review - The Offspring - Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace

There is such a thing as growing old gracefully and after the release of their Greatest Hits, I would have wrote off an eighth album from the Californian "punk" megastars. I use punk as a loose term as these guys have not been punk probably since the release of 1998's Pretty Fly (for a White Guy). My roots with the Offspring stem this, essentially a novelty record and discovered them backwards.

My exposure during my adolescent teen years was inspirational - Americana is an album that I can return to in a moments notice and so too Ignition and Smash, but recently, I have noticed how recycled the sounds that we used on Conspiracy of One and Splinter. They have basically been singing the same songs on each album ever since.

Don't expect anything new here - there are some good track in this collection - a definite improvement from Splinter, that is for sure, but in the clouds of relapse into the teenage years sountracked by the speedy drumming and basic power chords, I return back into real life and feel disgust coming over me as my post-rock post-hardcore self is repulsed by the insinuation that I can be captured by such basic song structure and mediocre melody.

Then I listen to You're Gonna Go Far Kid or Hammerhead and I smile, remembering that ever young child needs to go through the cathartic punk moment, and this, whilst nothing new, groundbreaking, or really any good, will serve as this generation of teenagers' soundtrack if My Chemical Romance or Foals have no stolen the crowd.

Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace is pretty bad, but I can't get away from the fact that I shouldn't like it, but I do, in a way, in a childish way, and I have to give it to Dexter Hollland - he knows how to sound like a highly strung teenager even into his early forties.

2/9 when I am in control, or 7/9 when I think like I used to. Take your pick really.

Review - The Music - Strength in Numbers

A few years ago, Colin and I were in Glasgow city centre, and were looking at buying a CD or two. I decided to buy The Music’s debut whereas Colin expressed interest in Dove’s album Lost Souls. It is rather interesting that both these bands have been away for a long time, either working out demons or trying to create a new album. In fact, Both released their last albums over 3 years ago, and in the case of The Music, 4 years ago. In that 4 years we have Klaxons, Franz Ferdinand, LCD Soundsystem and Arctic Monkeys. The musical landscape has changed massively and of that era, few British bands have survived – Hundred Reasons are still plugging away on a lowly label, Hell is For Heroes similarly, with the Cooper Temple Clause out for the count.

It comes to 2008, 7 years after I first fell in love with The Music and the danceable break beat rock they produce and I have changed too – I went from school student to University to student to employed office worker, and with that my musical taste has slightly evolved, from NU metal to indie and post-rock champion of sorts. Colin too has changed, becoming more specific in heavier post-hardcore. So, have The Music suitably changed?

The answer is kind of. The guitar work and melodies are intact, with the rousing vocals of Getaway and Breakin’ making it onto this album, and the sound is of a band who took a long time off to find themselves and their feet, and suddenly remembering what made them pick their instruments up in the first place.

The Spike and lead single Strength in Numbers are Music defining – large beats, leading guitar work, and rousing high pitched vocals echoing in the background, slightly lower in the mix than most bands. The production on the LP is slight, a sheen that is very different from previous albums – strings are echoed, the vocals are processed slightly and the synths are prominent.

On the dark and brooding Idle the band experiment slightly with their sound and it is a welcome respite, as it is bookended by some rather impressive tracks. This seems to be the new model The Music, with a slightly subdued sound, unlike their original work.

To be honest, this is a good return. Probably a million times better than some would have expected from them. Some times it seems they are trying to escape the constraints of their previous albums and they do succeed in certain places – the album is a rallying call, a statement that says that they were away but they fancy a second chance in the new landscape of late noughties rock, and with this album, it might not be sterling, but it is very much welcome, and if they survive the next few years (and we don’t have to wait till 2012 for their next album) we could be interesting records indeed.

5/9

Review - Feeder - Silent Cry

Feeder are a constant for my musical pallet having been introduced to them during the later years of my high school tuition, they represented a point in my life that a few other bands, namely Travis, Coldplay, Linkin Park and Papa Roach, will occupy for giving me my first own bands, ones that I sought out my self, found my self, and fell in love with (and out of love with) along with many of my friends. In fact, Colin, who I blog with, also rates Feeder quite highly and owns many of their early albums (if not all). I however, only have two in my collection. Yesterday Went too Soon and Polythene, so you should be able to guess from those two records where my opinions lie on their most recent bought of records.

Comfort in Sound is not the album I wanted from Feeder. It was neither loud nor exciting as most of the melancholy arrangements were obviously inspired partly by the suicide of drummer John Lee but it also felt like a left over of the previous couple of albums. Grant and Taka were beginning to run a little on fumes and whilst their spirited rocking out on Godzilla and Come Back Around sounded loud, live they paled to Insomnia, Buck Rodgers and the in-between single Just A Day. With 2005s Pushing the Senses doing nothing to convince me otherwise and the band reaching for the Coldplay/Keane/Snow Patrol heights of late noughties selling out to the epic over produced masses seemed to turn on all the older fans who were there in beginning. The became middle of the road and Grant's skills as a songwriter probably benefited from the rise into success but gave fans a little kick knock down.

So, seeing them live in late 2005 gave me hope. They performed mostly from their older albums, including High, and seemed enthusiastic about louder material, and in 2006, Grant did announce that the next album would be "heavier". I had been burned once before and amazingly Feeder have delivered not an amazing record, but a return to form that I never expected. From the first song you must fear the worst - We Are the People is potentially their worst single, and sets the album up for a fall but from there on in, with Itsumo, Miss You and Tracing Lines following packing punches you wonder where did they pull this from? These are some of the best feeder tracks since Yesterday Went to Soon and indeed seem to pushing to replace it. The lyrics are still a little insipid but as the guitar work and hooks are expertly pushed around you smile for the return of an old friend

The album sound like a sigh of relief. No longer fighting for the commercial success or the fans they needed, Feeder are able to spread their wings and self produce this album (just like YWTS) and it feels like suddenly Grant has realised not only what he enjoyed to write but also what the fans need - good, 4 minute pop rock songs, and while Silent Cry is not exactly the best album of the year, it is a fantastic record to listen to on a summery day and try to forget that whole "Dove Grey Sands" rubbish from the last album. Stick on Polythene, YWTS, Echo Park, Swim, and Silent Cry and they flow together well. Feeder, Mark I, are back.

7/9

Feeder Official Website
Feeder Myspace

Review - We Are The Physics - We Are the Physics Are OK At Music.

Something that sounds genuinely new and interesting should be celebrated with a large fanfare and a parade down the local high street – for We Are the Physics are here. The thing is that while these guys sound different and sound unique you realise after a couple of listens that they are not doing anything completely different, but are just taking bits from loads of bands, throwing them into a big pile and running through it, diving into and all the while shouting loudly.

They sound like mix of Franz Ferdinand, Les Savvy Fav, The Hives and Belle and Sebastian. No, wait, let me explain; the band have taken the shouty vocals from Les Savvy Fav 9and a bit of the high fret board guitar work), the danceable rhythm from Franz and a smattering of tongue in cheek from The Hives. So where does Belle and Sebastian fit in?

Well, the key to WATPh is that while they are jumping about the stage, frantically drumming, shouting, barrelling lyrics off, they have a handle on some rather exciting melodies that will stay with you for most of the day. A great example of this is the bass line from “Bulimia Sisters”, the shouty chorus from “You Can Do Athletics BTW”, and rather frantic shout along “This Is Vanity”. The tunes are infecting and will burrow deep inside that mind of you – your foot is tapping and you smile is widening before you cans top your self.

There does seem to a bit a problem with the album though, and I might say it lies in the production. The amazing riff that is buried in deep in “Pylons + Other Modern Art” is lost – if the riff was as prominent as the “solo” 1.00 in then it might have lifted the song above the rest of the album. Elsewhere the scatter technique of the drumming lets the songs go of in insane tangents almost every 10 seconds which can berate after a couple of listens.

The sum of the album though is that this is a good collection of songs. Fans of the band will recognise a few from singles that the band have released – there are a few tracks new to this album that will not have heard, but the quality of those singles (which for months have been on the band’s Myspace) are good enough to warrant a purchase. A great album, though not for everyone, I can’t wait to see what the band can do with their second album.

Did I mention that three of the four are called Michael?

8/9

Band's Myspace
Buy Album from Play.com MP3 Downloads

Review - Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

I am a fan of Elbow and have been since A Cast of Thousands, so listening to their fourth LP I might be slightly biased towards the "drinking man's Coldplay", a tag I detest more every time I hear it. Their last album, born of the tours that almost ripped the band apart, was slightly disjointed and flowed jarringly, but still had the epic and warm feeling mixed with a sense of Guy Garvey smoking, creased suit jacket, and a guitar, writing musings on the world.

This time the band have produced the album themselves, and this increases the warmth of the record as you know that every guitar string, echo, synth and organ are all there for a reason as it adds to the music, and the sound levels will be perfect for telling the story that the band had dreamed of when writing the music. And, while it is not a concept album with a story per se, there is a feeling that each track is a chapter in a tale wrapped within the soaring strings, grungy bass lines and melodies so pure and well crafted the album is closing in on perfection.

At least, after the first six tracks, we are there. Mirrorball is sublime in the purest way possible, with a piano sprinkling and a high to low vocal track that tugs at my heart with every word. The single, Grounds for Divorce, thunders in at a pace unmatched on the album but fits with the rest of the slower, quieter, smoother edges, and it tugs at you jacket. Running outside into the sun, to have you jacket caught by the door handle and that single moment where you smile and think how the world works, Grounds for Divorce is one the stand out tracks, but the opener, Starling, has to take the title of one of the best Elbow songs ever. An Audience with the Pope and The Fix (with Richard Hawley appearing) are also shining lights on this record.

In summation, The Seldom Seen Kid is a contender for Album of the Year, along with 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons. The "drinking man's Coldplay" they are not, unless the drink is White Wine, Whisky, and possibly tap water.

8/9

Mirrorball
The Fix

Review - Stereophonics - Pull the Pin

The last two reviews have been of recent, or close to recent, releases from artists as I can imagine that reviewers are supposed to review, but this album is not recent, but already been out for a few months, but I have started to listen to it thinking I would give it a chance, but that might have been a mistake.

Stereophonics have been awful for ages. Since their first two albums that caught the same zeitgeist that Oasis had rode in on, they went all rubbish in the same way Oasis fell apart (if you believe the press, I can now listen to those albums with hindsight and be very impressed by them). The problem with Stereophonics is that they mellowed out beyond what you can call still actively making a record – they were not only slow and mellow, but also it seemed lazy, almost drifting along doing nothing but chords and mismatched lyrics talking pish about nothing but the “rock and roll” that Kelly Jones and experienced a few years previously.

All this make 2005’s Language Violence Sex Other a return to form in a sense with the heavier rock and gnarling riffs from their earlier stuff, and it still sounds like a really good album even today – but the worry is that their sixth album, Pull the Pin, would return to the chilled out arsey rock of their previous releases, and you might be relieve as they don’t as the distortion is turned up and kept on at a loud level, but missing is everything else.

Rifss slip out like mumbled words after a few drinks, the drumming, whilst trying hard, still feels laboured and as an after thought, and the lyrics are even more generic that you can imagine, describing such boring things such as a Bank Holiday Monday, and all this hidden in a loud package that seems to say “yeah, LOUD, but BORING”.

The problem is that there is the regular amount of acoustic, slow rock and fast riffing here, and the regular and required amout of swearing for the average chart listener to think they are listening to a Rock band, but in fact Kelly Jones have not ever been on, and have never been the master lyricist that they are perceived to have been – just back in the Performance and Cocktails they had energy, and Word Gets Around they had enthusiasm, but now they pretend to have both, where they really just have Major Label cheques and Yes-men who hang about saying “That is rock” when in fact it is “distortion based pop music”.

Stereophonics are still awful, and Pull the Pin should by all accounts be their last album, but it won’t be, as the Radio1 crew bought it and put it to number 1. I wonder when they will release their “greatest hits”.

Passing the Buck, probably the best track on the album.
Bank Holiday Monday, probably the worst track on the album.

3/9

Review - British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?

British Sea Power have always promised lots, and the hype each time they get close to releasing some new material sometimes reaches fever pitch, and the last few times it has not really delivered, meeting the thin line between good indie and bad indie - think first album Coldplay and the latest album from Embrace. Can they survive an unfavourable situation created by them this time?

In a small way, yes, but not without a few mistakes here and there. The opener All in It is very epic, and sets the tone, for an album that depicts the universe, expansive and wonderful, but with the problem that it is viewed from earth. Instead of the full universe, with all the supernovae and the planets, we get a few blurry pictures, the promise of space and amazing new worlds, and a few comets every so often.

The following tracks have worrying tones that at any moment they might break into twee or stadium-epicness without needing to, see Atom for one that does fall into this. The over blown production allows it to seem epic with going into the stadium chorus staple, and the problem is that it does use the wall of sound and higher-pitched guitar and individual notes of U2, but wrapped in a warmingly indie package that transcends the rest of the song. Think Arcade Fire during a volcano eruption, and the alarming thought of world war and the album will feel like it should.

But, herein lies the problem with British Sea Power, and in essence, with Do You Likes Rock Music?; it promises much, gives a lot, but allows just never reaches where you want and expect it reach. The feel of a band exploring its reach, and the boundaries their musicianship allow them to go for. The album does lull slightly after the first listen but initially, if this was based on first listen only, the album would have got full marks. Listening to it again and again, and wondering where that feeling I had achieved the first time was, reminded me of the question that the title asks: Do You Like Rock Music? I do, and I like this – but, in actuality, and infinitely, is this even Rock Music, capitalised?

This is a journey, a great, warm, epic, stunning, sometimes universal, most of the time life assuring, and all the time fantastic journey, that whilst the first time you make it you will be impressed and surprised, the returning journeys will be less exciting, like returning to your favourite holiday destination from when you were a child as an adult. British Sea Power have always promised lots, and wile this does give, it just falls slightly short, and, cripplingly, over stretches what it does have.

6/9

Review - The Mars Volta / The Bedlam in Goliath / 2008

Cast your mind back to 2003 – remember any albums that stood out that year? If you are into the same types of bands I am, and indeed, Colin is, you might be thinking of one release in particular; Deloused in the Comatorium, the debut LP from The Mars Volta. Its exploded in a way that only keen progressive rock fans could understand, and for the rest, bemusement at the unusual song structures, the rather crazy and seemingly plucked from a dictionary lyrics. But underneath this bubbling mental scape of sound, was melody, music, and technically gifted musicaians enjoying a chance to show off, creating some the best stand out tracks in a long time.

Long intro paragraph, but for the last two Mars Volta albums, they have used that too using sound and noise to create walls of static, that to be honest, make me slightly annoyed to listen to Frances the Mute (2005) or Amputechture (2006) as this slightly indulgent use of sound to extend tracks beyond 6 minutes breaks up a flow of an album rather quickly. Goliath has no introduction. It blows away the cobwebs with a simple “Have you seen the living?...” shouted in alien voice so recognisable, and a drumsguitarbass implosion.

So, Bedlam in Goliath, is a return to form, if you feel they ever lost their form. They have no over arcing catastrophe, but the story plays out like a long winded fairytale, or an Indiana Jones film. The static is gone, and in it’s place is a groove so delicate in some, but so crashing in Cavalettas, that you suddenly feel like there is different songs here. Metatron is shocking as it uses melody, something they had seemingly forgotten about when it came to Amputechture, and by accident or design, no track is longer tan the prescribed 10 minutes, though Goliath and Cavalettas do come close to breaking the boundary.

This leaves us with an album of stand out tracks – Agadez sounds at times like At the Drive-in and others, like the short and sweet Wax Simulcra and Tourniquet Man are welcome respites in the rather ragged landscape given by frantic drumming and vocals distorted beyond comprehension.

So, I am enjoying it. It is very solid, cohesive, and feels like an album of ideas, rather than one idea stretched over 12 tracks, and 78minutes. It is a step back into the Comatorium days and that could be seen as a step back into an identity that they had banished, but the natural progression of a band cannot be faulted, especially the natural progression of a progressive rock band.

8/9

Try Metatron and Cavalettas.